For the nth time I had to quit picking when I noticed the wood under my arm was changing color from that deep creamy Martin finish to bleached white because of the sweat leaking out from my armpit.

You'd imagine a home where everybody plays and herself is a great seamstress there would be some permanent solution found, but no such thing is about to happen.

She, well we, are procrastinators but make up for it by buying every bargain in driving distance even if these end up in the trash.

And what makes me hop is that I never get into playing well - (on the Guitar Irtrad is a dedication not a hobby ...has to be tried to correct any illusion that flautists/pipers are skilled )- except when the sweat fountain is flowing. Covereing the top with a kitchen towel is no help either, since very soon the evil acid leaks through and all I can do is quit.

The very same thing applies to good fiddling - at least here it does - and never ever have I been able to play tunes entirely without pausing with a towel to rub the stinking crap off my neck.

Maybe I should move back to rainy cool Britain where there is no perspiration in music!

Well, if you're playing where it's hot I can imagine you would sweat. I do often see people on stage in warm rooms with towels to wipe off their faces and necks. I guess not in the middle of a tune but at the end of one.

Sweat doesn't have to be stinking crap though. If you are clean and your clothes are clean---which I am sure is true in your case---just think of it as slightly salty water which is helping to cool your body off. It is a good thing really.

Could you wear a sweat band around your forehead and neck to keep it from running and bothering you? If you wet them down they are supposed to keep you cooler. Could you use a small towel and fold it into a number of layers to put between your armpit and the guitar? And then have lots of them on hand? I don't know if superabsorbent baby diapers would hold more water. You could fold it so no one would know what it was. Anything that really kept the sweat inside your shirt would probably make you hotter and then you would sweat more.

I sweat a lot. Some of us are just real sweaters I guess.

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Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca

Same as that. Even playing at home I regularly have to wipe my face and the strings.

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And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.

I use a small fan at home and on stage... in addition to a bunch of hand towels.

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Ok it sounds as if I don't do the right things, but alas I do! I have a fan and I tried towels - several of them.

It isn't normal sweat. I think I should bottle it and sell as a metal cleaner or paint remover.

But thanks for the tips

euw...

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And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.

I understand your situation, I ooze caustic sweat as well. Nothing can be done apart from drastically changing one's diet, and limiting alcohol consumption while boosting water.... it's a tough choice, but someday I'll get around to making it.

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Maybe it's not so much sweat as it is ambient moisture that's just sort of condensed on your skin.

'cause you're too cool?

I've taken to wearing one of those elastic terry-cloth-like wrist bands up where my arm rests on the guitar/banjo. It's a bit narrow--under two inches, so it doesn't always work as planned, but it does help.

I'd like to find something similar about 5-6 inches long.

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Mike Wright

"When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place."
 --Goethe